I am getting married next summer and as I have been a huge LIW fan my whole life, I would like to include something LIW into my wedding…I think I’m looking for a quote to put on the programs or a reading that could be done during the ceremony, but I’m not coming up with much…I was just wondering if you might have any suggestions, or have any other ideas for incorporating LIW into a wedding? Thanks for any help you can offer!
~Erica
We thought we’d open this one up to you, the readers of Beyond Little House. What suggestions do you have for Erica? We look forward to hearing them.
“In the Starlight” might be a nice song for the ceremony. (It’s the song Laura sang on the buggy rides in These Happy Golden Years)
Lyrics are here.
You can hear the song here.
For me, the most romantic part in THGY is when Almanzo shows her the awesome pantry he built for her. Read the description of those little wooden drawers aloud at my wedding, please! (But that’s just me)
What about a pretty wheat motif as a decoration element (like what was on their bread plate)? Or actual (depending on where in the crop they are) green wheat or dried wheat in the flowers? The lyrics to Happy Golden Years as quoted in the book? The quote where Laura says she will not say the word obey (like any of us do anyway…) Wildflowers? Seed packets as favors? Leeches in glass bowls on the tables? …no no no, that was a joke.
Oooh, Laura, I like the way you think. I married a wheat farmer and even though I gave the centerpieces for my six-months-after-the-wedding reception a lick and a promise, the green wheat, complete with dirt and root, accented with ripe golden wheat propped up in the center, worked out really well.
I had to go get my copy of THGY to refresh my memory, but there is a really sweet song that Pa sings for Ma on the night that Almanzo gives Laura her ring and they share their first kiss. It starts out, “A beautiful castle I’ve built for thee….” Laura says that he often sang it for Ma. I think in Donald Zochert’s biography of her he commented something to the effect that it was a strange thing about Pa and Ma: Ma would go wherever Pa led, but he would only lead places Ma would go! What a great way to sum up their loving and mutually respectful relationship.
But, Erica, no matter how you choose to remember Laura on your own special day, we wish you God’s favor and many blessings on your wedding day and all the days of your marriage.
Funny. My friend and I were talking last week about ideal proposals and I said take my to DeSmet and arrange a buggy ride & star-lit proposal.
I like the idea of the sheaves of wheat and working in “Give us this day our daily bread” Maybe are you having communion at your wedding and then having one of the suggested songs sung during it?
The poem Mary quotes to Laura in chapter 16 of These Happy Golden Years begins, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may…” and was written by Robert Herrick. This poem has been set to music, and would be beautiful sung at a wedding:
“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the Sun,
The higher he’s a-getting
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times, still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time;
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.”
One version can be heard here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC2uxhKrzBs
Oh–I thought of another! The song,”Home Sweet Home” comes up often in the Little House books. You could have it sung, or the lyrics printed on the program. Listen here:
http://www.royblakeley.name/larry_blakeley/songs/home_sweet_home.mp3
HOME SWEET HOME
Mid Pleasures and palaces though I may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home;
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek thro’ the world, is ne’er met with elsewhere. Home.
Home! Sweet, sweet home!
There’s no place like home.
There’s no place like home.
An exile from home, spendor dazzles in vain,
Oh, give me my lowly thatched cottage again;
The birds singing gaily, that come at my call;
Give me them, with that peace of mind, dearer than all.
CHORUS
To thee, I’ll return, overburdened with care,
The heart’s dearest solace will smile on me there.
No more from that cottage again will I roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.
Golden years are passing by,
Happy, happy golden years,
Passing on the wings of time,
These happy golden years.
Call them back as they go by,
Sweet their memories are,
Oh, improve them as they fly,
These happy golden years.
The Quotation Caroline enscribes in Laura’s autograph book always strikes me as full of wisdom:
If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek,
Five things observe with care.
To whom you speak,
Of whom you speak, and
How and when and where.
It might be nice for a program.
I realize the wedding has already taken place, but when I read this question the first thing that popped into my mind was Ma’s admonition: “Marry in black, you’ll wish yourself back.” I wanted to get married in black, but no one would let me. No matter–I was divorced anyway!